Afternoon Drive withStephen Grootes

While the City of Cape Town forges ahead with work to augment the water supply, fears are being raised about the environmental impact of extracting water from aquifers.

Ecologist Dr Jasper Slingsby says it is currently hard to tell how the extraction of underground water will impact the environment. However, he has noticed some fynbos dying due to a lack of water, and the areas that were previously affected by fires have not yet recovered.

With regards to extracting water directly it's one of the great unknowns ... I think it is one of the things that logic would tell you, there will be an impact, but to actually collect the numbers it is something that you are never going to be able to do even in a couple of decades.